Frost & Sullivan names GE Intelligent Platforms business as 2014 Global Company of the Year

Based on its recent analysis of the human-machine interface (HMI) market, Frost & Sullivan, Mountain View, Calif., has recognized GE's Intelligent Platforms business with the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award. GE's foresight in using real-time operational intelligence (RtOI) to evolve plant floor processes is a crucial step toward creating smart factories, Frost & Sullivan reports.

GE leveraged mobility and advanced intelligence to launch RtOI. This technology is an extension of HMI/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), combining mobility, analytics, and geo-awareness to help customers optimize their plant operations.

"With RtOI, GE can enable customers to filter the operational data from the HMI/SCADA systems and transform them into actionable insights that can be accessed anywhere at any time," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Guru Mahesh. "This unique value proposition will open new opportunities in preventive maintenance, which can reduce the downtime and associated costs for customers."

Frost & Sullivan's research revealed that the customers that adopted GE's RtOI technology experienced a 70 percent increase in operator productivity, a 25 percent decrease in downtime, and a 45 percent increase in the value offered by the company, exceeding traditional HMI system efficiency.

Frost & Sullivan noted that GE was one of the earliest companies to have launched a pilot program for RtOI in a GE energy storage factory in the U.S. As a part of this program, employees used iPad®s and GE's Proficy® software to access industrial data, which alerted employees to possible malfunctions and alarms, helping them take corrective action faster. Smartphones and tablets have an established presence in the industrial sector, where mobility has become a key theme. Nevertheless, RtOI is not just about going mobile; it is about using advanced intelligence to channel the right information to the right device. This approach has enabled GE to successfully cater to the needs of customers all over the world, states Frost & Sullivan.